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	According to the Experts: Selected Studies and Reports
	Government Resources
	Publications from Human Rights Groups
	Intercountry Adoption Statistics
	Websites for Learning More

According to the Experts:
Selected Studies and Reports

Below is a selected (not comprehensive) list of reports, presentations, and studies of irregular procedures in international adoption, especially the buying, defrauding, coercing, and kidnapping of children away from their birth families.

Richard Cross, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent’s presentation at Samford University, Cumberland School of Law, on April 15, 2005, about his investigation of Lauryn Galindo’s Cambodian operation which bought, defrauded, or kidnapped children from their birth families for the purpose of international adoption. Cross’s investigation led to Galindo being tried and jailed on federal charges.

To see or hear his presentation, or to read the transcript, click here and scroll to the bottom of the web page. 

Jonathan Dickens is a senior lecturer in social work and director of the BA and MA in social work at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom. He lived in Romania for three years, where he studied the international aspects of social work and the impact of intercountry adoption on the Romanian child welfare system.

“The paradox of intercountry adoption: analyzing Romania’s experience as a
sending country,” International Journal of Social Welfare 11.1, 2002: 76-83

Study and analysis of how intercountry adoption affects the "sending country's" child welfare system. Dickens concludes that international adoption is set up to meet meet the needs—not primarily of the children or adoptive parents—of international adoption agencies, domestic child-welfare systems, and international political interests. The country's child care legislation gives formal priority to domestic alternatives to institutional care—preventive services, family reunification, foster care and in-country adoption. Concludes that in Romania, intercountry adoption remained a priority because of the large amounts of money to be earned. Suggests that intercountry financial aid for child welfare services should not be tied to intercountry adoption, because it paradoxically undermines the effectiveness of those services for the children who are left behind.

Sarah Dillon, “Making Legal Regimes for Intercountry Adoption Reflect Human Rights Principles: Transforming the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child with the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption,” 21 B.U. INT’L L. J. 179, 2003.

Arun Dohle, "Inside story of an adoption scam," November 13, 2008.

This article examines India’s international adoption process, focusing in particular on Preet Mandir, a children’s home in India that placed 518 children for adoption between 2004 and 2006, most internationally. This article outlines evidence that Preet Mandir was sending children without their birthfamilies’ permission; bribing India’s central authority in order to retain its license; and doing so for profit. Extensive detail includes names of the countries and Western adoption agencies involved.

Wendy Galvin, is the founding partner of Galvin Law, a New Zealand firm specializing in international adoption. “INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION—The good, the bad and the ugly; A South Pacific perspective,” Presentation for the International Bar Association 2005 Conference, Prague Czech Republic, September 24, 2005–September 30, 2005.

• Galvin states: “Intercountry adoption is a strange blend of humanitarian outreach and semi-commercial exploitation on an international scale, with significant political implications."

• Explores characteristics of both sending and receiving countries using the examples of Samoa and New Zealand, respectively.

Peter Bille Larsen is a social anthropologist specializing in social equity, indigenous issues, and political ecology. In these articles, Larsen reports that while doing fieldwork in Vietnam, five women asked him for help getting their children back.

• “Will the Rục children come home? Part III: Revisiting the words of a Rục mother, legal loopholes and Vietnamese social policy,” May 10, 2008.
• “Will my child come home? Shedding light on the grey-zones of international adoption,” October 14, 2008.

Trish Maskew served as a consultant to the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, and is an author of its newly published Guide to Good Practice on the Implementation and Operation of the 1993 Hague Intercountry Adoption Convention. Maskew was founder and, until 2008, president of Ethica, Inc. a non-profit organization dedicated to adoption reform.

• "Child Trafficking and Intercountry Adoption: The Cambodian Experience," Cumberland Law Review, Volume 35. 3, 2005
• "The Failure of Promise: The U.S. Regulations on Intercountry Adoption under the Hague Convention," American University Administrative Law Review, Vol. 60:2, (2008)
• "Red Thread or Slender Reed: Deconstructing Prof. Bartholet's Mythology of International Adoption," co-author Johanna Oreskovic, Buffalo Human Rights Law Review, Vol. 14, forthcoming (2008).

Judith Masson, “Intercountry Adoption: A Global Problem or a Global Solution?” Journal of International Affairs Vol. 55.1, Fall 2008.

Describes how intercountry adoption can undermine child welfare systems. Argues that regulatory standards, particularly the control of private adoptions, are required to eliminate abuses such as the abduction and trafficking of children.

Jini Roby is an Associate Professor at Brigham Young University, and an expert in adoption policy and practice. 

• “If I Give You My Child, Aren't We Family? A Study of Birthmothers Participating in Marshall Islands-U.S. Adoptions,” with Stephanie Matsumura. Adoption Quarterly Vol. 5.4, June 1, 2002. 

In a study of 73 birthmothers in the Republic of Marshall Islands, a small Western Pacific island nation with a total population of 68,000, more than 80 percent of the birthmothers believed that their children would return at age 18, better educated and wealthier. They believed they would help care for their original families, as is consistent with their cultural conception of adoption. 

• “Openness in International Adoptions A Study of US Parents Who Adopted Children from the Marshall Islands,” with Jamie Wyatt, Boston College, and Gregory Pettys, Brigham Young University. Adoption Quarterly Vol.8.3, October 11, 2005.

Examines the experiences of U.S. parents who adopted children from the Republic of Marshall Islands. In general, these parents embraced openness from the start; had difficulty maintaining contact with birth families; and still would recommend open international adoptions to prospective adoptive parents.

Peter Selman is visiting fellow at Britain’s Newcastle University and chair of the Network for Intercountry Adoption. He is editor of Intercountry Adoption: Developments, Trends, and Perspectives. For more current or particular statistical information, email Peter Selman directly.  

• “Trends in Intercountry Adoption,” Journal of Population Research, 2006.

Analyzes data related about 20 developed nations’ adoptions from other countries. Notes that between 1998 and 2004, inter-country adoption increased by 42 per cent.  

• “Intercountry adoption in the new millennium; the “quiet migration” revisited,” Population Research and Policy Review 21.3, 2002: 205-225.

Using data recorded in the 1990s by 18 nations that adopted children from other countries, looks into the demographics of intercountry adoption, including: its rapid increase; countries that adopt the most children, both numerically and per capita; and countries that “send” the most children into adoption, both numerically and per capita.

• “Prime Numbers: The Diaper Diaspora,” Foreign Policy Magazine, January/February 2007. (Subscription required.)

David Smolin is a professor at Cumberland School of Law with expertise in international children’s issues. He has adopted internationally. Click here for a longer bio.

• “Child Laundering: How the Intercountry Adoption System Legitimizes and Incentivizes the Practices of Buying, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Stealing Children,” Wayne Law Review 52. 1, 2006: 113-200.

Documents and analyzes a substantial incidence of “child laundering” through intercountry adoption.

• “Intercountry adoption and poverty: A human rights analysis,” 36 Cap. U. L. Rev. 413, 2007.

Using the lens of international human rights law, argues that, where the birth parents live under or near the international poverty standard of $1 per day, family preservation assistance must be provided or offered before families are allowed to legally relinquish children for intercountry adoption.

• “Intercountry Adoption as Child Trafficking,” Valparaiso Law Review, 39.2, 2005: 281-325.

Analyzes when illicit intercountry adoptions constitute a form of child trafficking under international law. Reviews and applies relevant treaties on slavery and human trafficking. Analyzes the problem of money and adoption within the domestic (United States) adoption system.

• “The Two Faces of Intercountry Adoption: The Significance of the Indian Adoption Scandals,” Seton Hall Law Review 35.2, 2005: 403-493.

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Government Resources

Canada
France
Italy 
Spain 
Switzerland 
United Kingdom
United States

Canada

Citizenship and Immigration Canada> International Adoption

Information about intercountry adoptions to Canada.

France

France-Diplomatie > Les Français et l’étranger > Conseils aux familles > Adoption Internationale   

Information about intercountry adoptions to France.

Italy

Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri> Commissione per le Adozioni Internazionali     

Information about intercountry adoptions to Italy

Spain

Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores
Dirección General de Asuntos Consulares y Protección de los Españoles en el Extranjero
C/ General Pardiñas, 55
28071 MADRID
tel.: +34 (91) 379-1700 / 379-1610
fax: +34 (91) 578-0433
E-mail: mjesus.montane@mepsyd.es
Politica Social > Familias e infancia > Ministerio de Sanidad y Politica Social

Information about intercountry adoptions to Spain.

Switzerland

Switzerland’s Official Web Portal> Your Life> International Adoption

Information about intercountry adoptions to Switzerland.

United Kingdom

United Kingdom Department for Children, Schools, and Families> Intercountry Adoption

Information about intercountry adoptions to the U.K. Includes factsheets about popular sending countries and statistics.

"International Adoption: Respecting Children’s Rights," Report of Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee, Council of Europe, Doc. 8592, Dec. 2, 1999.     

 The United States

 United States Department of State> Office of Children’s Issues> Intercountry Adoption Home

Website provides detailed information about adoption from specific countries; news and alerts; statistical data about international adoptions; and information about the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. View their overview of the Hague Convention.

If you can provide web addresses for any other countries’ intercountry adoption sites, please email us.

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Publications from Human Rights Groups

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is mandated by the UN to work for children's rights, their survival, development and protection, guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Releases related to orphans and adoption include:

• UNICEF’s Position on Intercountry Adoption

• UNICEF Statement on Orphans 

• “State of the World’s Children 2008”, UNICEF.

An examination of child mortality and child health statistics around the world, including statistics about orphans.

• “Children on the Brink 2004: A Joint Report of New Orphan Estimates and a Framework for Action,” 

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), July 2004.

Holt International Children’s Services. Best known as an adoption agency, Holt International Children's Services also develops and maintains programs overseas to give orphaned, abandoned, and vulnerable children safe and nurturing environments in which to develop. Programs include research and publications.

• “Situation Faced by Institutionalized Children and Adolescents in Shelters in Guatemala,” conducted by the President’s Office for Social Welfare, Guatemala, with the support of Holt International Services and UNICEF, June 2008.

This study, conducted by the President’s Office for Social Welfare together with the support of Holt International Services and UNICEF, analyzes the situation faced by institutionalized children and adolescents in shelters in Guatemala. Findings include: 5,600 children and adolescents live in Guatemalan institutions. More than 4,600 of these children are age 4 or older. Fewer than 400 are under a year old.

• "An Assessment of Inter Country Adoption Laws, Policies and Practices in Liberia,” UNICEF and Holt International Children’s Services, 2007.

Study found that Liberia’s adoption law fails to regulate intercountry adoption effectively. Concludes that “as a partial result of this lack of oversight, many children who are not legitimately eligible are suspected of entering the adoption system through fraudulent means, mostly through false promises designed to deceive birth parents into relinquishing them.”

• “Cambodia Orphanage Survey 2005,” Holt International Children’s Services for USAID, September 2005.

Study of 204 Cambodian child caring facilities in 24 provinces documented 8,270 children in institutional care. Findings include: Most children in care are over the age of 8 and therefore ineligible for international adoption. Only 132 children in institutions were one year old or younger—fewer babies than Westerners adopted every two months. Many children in orphanages had extended families that could care for them, if provided with the support to do so.

Latin American Institute for Education and Communication (ILPEC) 

• “Adoption and the rights of the child in Guatemala,” Latin American Institute for Education and Communication (ILPEC) Guatemala for UNICEF, 2000.

Study of Guatemala’s then-current child adoption process. Concludes that these direct and private adoptions were what they called a “labor market” conducted for financial gain, not for the child’s best interests.

Terre des Hommes Foundation and UNICEF

• “Adopting: the rights of the child, A study on inter-country adoption and its influence on child protection in Nepal,” UNICEF and the Terre des hommes Foundation, 2008.

Report concludes that many children living in Nepal’s orphanages, children’s homes, and other institutions are deprived of basic rights. Most children in institutions surveyed have living relatives from whom they have been separated. Reports on abuses, including kidnapping and baby-buying, coercion of parents, bribery, and trafficking.

More UN Publications

• “A Report on the Human Rights Situation in Liberia,” United Nations Mission in Liberia, May–October 2007.

The United Nations Mission in Liberia found in 2007 that, despite a lack of government accreditation, some orphanages were still operating as a for-profit venture and putting children at risk. (See page 8 for information about problems in Liberian orphanages.)

• “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Ms. Ofelia Calcetas-Santos. Addendum, Report on the mission to Guatemala,” UN Economic and Social Council, Commission on Human Rights, January 23, 2000.

Reports on widespread child buying, coercion, and kidnapping of children for adoption. Includes allegations that some hospital staff members were defrauding new mothers out of their babies, and that other “child finders” were contracting with women to bear a series of children specifically to be sold for international adoption.

• "Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Right of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography," G.A. Res. 263, U.N. GAOR, 54th Sess., Supp. No. 49, U.N. Doc. A/RES/54/263, 2000 (entered into force Jan. 18, 2002).

Addresses intercountry adoption as a form of child trafficking; calls for all parties’ adherence to international law in adoption, specifically the Hague Convention.

Hague Conference on Private International Law

• “Report of a fact-finding mission to Guatemala in relation to intercountry adoption,” Hague Conference on Private International Law, May 2007.

The Casa Alianza Foundation and Myrna Mack Survivors Foundation 

• “Adoptions in Guatemala: Protection or Business?,” Casa Alianza Foundation and Myrna Mack Survivors Foundation, with the support of the Social Movement for the Rights of Children and Adolescents; Human Rights Office of the Archbishop of Guatemala (ODHAG); and Social Welfare Secretariat (SBS), November 2007.

In-depth report on irregularities within the Guatemalan adoption system. Includes government statistics, reports of medical personnel repeatedly involved in childbirths for international adoption, and news and police reports of child kidnappings for adoption.

For UNICEF’s English translation, follow these links: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five.  

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Intercountry Adoption Statistics

U.S. Department of State Intercountry adoption statistics 

The Department of State provides statistical information about the number of Immigrant Visas issued to orphans dating back to 1990.

Department of Homeland Security Statistics

The United States Department of Homeland Security Immigration Unit publishes annual immigration statistics.   

• 2007 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics. For adoption numbers, see Table 12: “Immigrant orphans adopted by U.S. citizens by gender, age, and region and country of birth: Fiscal year 2007” 
• 2006 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics. See Table 12: “Immigrant orphans adopted by U.S. citizens by gender, age, and region and country of birth: Fiscal year 2006”
• 2005 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics. See Table 12: “Immigrant orphans adopted by U.S. citizens by gender, age, and region and country of birth: Fiscal year 2005” 
• 2004 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics. See Supplemental Table 4: “Immigrant orphans adopted by U.S. citizens by gender, age, and region and country of birth: Fiscal year 2004”

Australian InterCountry Adoption Network Statistics

The Australian InterCountry Adoption Network (AICAN), founded in 1990, is the national network of 14 non-government organizations (NGOs) involved in intercountry adoption. AICAN maintains comprehensive worldwide adoption statistics, organized by: Orphan’s Country of Origin and by Receiving Country. NOTE: According to Peter Selman, AICAN does not include all of the most current data.

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Websites for Learning More 

Adoption Agency Research Group, a yahoo! group. Formed to help prospective adoptive parents (PAPs) research and select an international adoption agency. Some members have in-depth knowledge about difficulties with a variety of agencies and countries. Adoption professionals may not join.

The Better Care Network brings together organizations and individuals concerned about children without adequate family care. BCN facilitates active information exchange and collaboration on these issues and advocates for technically sound policy and programmatic action on global, regional, and national levels.

Ethica, Inc.—An independent voice for ethical adoption. A nonprofit organization that seeks to be an impartial voice for ethical adoption practices worldwide, and provides education, assistance, and advocacy to the adoption and foster care communities.

EMK Press—Resources for adoptive families and the professionals who help them. EMK Press publishes books for adoptees, adoptive families, foster families, and adoption professionals.

Fleas Biting Blog is maintained by Desiree Smolin and Usha Regenchary Smerdon. In 1998, Desiree and her husband David Smolin adopted two older girls from India only to find that the two had been stolen from their birthmother. The blog tracks corruption in international adoption and links to a plethora of resources.

Joint Council on International Children’s Services (JCICS)’s mission is to advocate on behalf of children in need of permanent, safe and loving families. Its member organizations are involved in international adoption.

Le wiki de l’adoption. A French website about adoptions from Cambodia.

Parents for Ethical Adoption Reform (PEAR) is a grassroots group of adoptive and prospective adoptive parents. Its mission is to provide a voice for prospective and adoptive parents, and to ensure that families are given the opportunity to make a wholly informed and educated decision to adopt.

Towards a New Ending is Julia Rollings’ blog. In 1998, the Rollings family adopted a pair of siblings from an orphanage in Chennai, India. In 2006 the director of the orphanage was arrested on charges relating to child trafficking. The Rollings decided to launch a private investigation into their youngest children's adoption, finally making contact with their children's birth mother in mid 2006, who confirmed that our son Akil and daughter Sabila had been taken from her without her knowledge or consent and sold by her first husband. The Rollings returned to India in March 2007 to reunite their children (aged 12 and 13) with Sunama and her five younger children by a second husband.

     In September 2008, Julia published a book, Love Our Way: A Mother's Story, (in Australia and New Zealand; not yet available in the U.S.) in which she tells the story of discovering that her children had been victims of child trafficking and establishing a strong connection and ongoing relationship with their birthmother. For more information about the scandal at Chennai orphanage, see David Smolin’s selected works.

Voices for Vietnam Adoption Integrity is a volunteer collaborative blog overseen by parents who have been through the adoption process in Vietnam and have gained knowledge and concern about ethics and integrity. They hope to help educate others and continue to voice the necessity for ethical adoptions in Vietnam and worldwide.

Please email us if you have suggestions for this list.

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© 2008-2009 Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, 02454. All rights reserved.

^{Last page update: June 9, 2009}